Sergeant’s Wife Kept A Blog On The Difficulties Of Army Life

Sergeant’s Wife Kept A Blog On The Travails Of Army Life -- New York Times

She detailed her pregnancy, with her husband a world away. She described the knot she got in her stomach from missing him. She wrote of her disappointment after he was passed over for a promotion.

But mostly, Karilyn Bales — the wife of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last week — relayed the simple anguish of life as a military spouse, tending to a home with two young children, with a husband summoned for repeated deployments.

“Bob left for Iraq this morning,” she wrote in her family blog on Aug. 9, 2009. “Quincy slept in our bed last night.”

Though much of the family’s online presence appears to have been removed in recent days, the fragments that remain capture the daily travails typical of any family with a loved one stationed abroad.

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My Comment: More details on how difficult life had become for this family can be read here. As to what is my take .... after reading all the news reports and analysis you walk away with the cold realization that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales' life and the life of his family has been changed forever .... that his children will never have a normal life with their dad, and that his wife must now (probably) struggle alone. And what is worse .... there are now a number of Afghan families who are enduring unbearable pain over the loss of their children and loved ones .... and you know they will never forgive.